Pie Soup

I never made a lemon meringue pie before. But Hubby wanted one for Valentine's Day. I was so worried about the crust (it has been 20 years since I made a crust) that I just didn't concern myself about the rest of it. The good news is the crust was excellent! I had a good recipe, using all butter, no Crisco. And I had a pastry blender that Pampered Chef just came out with last year with a long handle and it made cutting in the butter a breeze. I had a silicone pastry mat (also from PC) that shows you how big to make the piecrust and then you just lift it up, turn it over and peel the crust off of it and into the pie plate. Voila! Easy. The rest of the pie - not so much. I did something wrong with the lemon filling. It tasted really good, but it didn't set up. It seemed fine when I was making it, it just never got really solid. More like lemon pudding consistency. And the meringue. Well, I added the sugar too early. I didn't know you have to whip it up first and then add the sugar. So it took FOREVER! And I never achieved the volume that meringue is supposed to have. It was only about an inch high and then that shrunk. Tasted good, though.

Oh well. This just means I have to try again! It was a fun experiment! So I have had a piece of pie soup for dessert and Hubby had a brownie and milk. Made the brownies the other night when we were watching the chocolate special on Food Network. Couldn't NOT make something chocolate that night.

When I get the recipe right I will post it on the Bon Vivant website. Until then, I am going to practice. I have lots of lemons left!

Today I am Thankful For...

My cold going away.

Finally.

Thank You

Thank you to everybody for all your caring words and concern about me. I am actually really getting better now. I thought I was doing okay the other day, but then I got bad again. Now it has been a week and a half. This thing stinks! I have only a little bit of stuffiness left and a little cough, but it has really zapped all my energy! But this too shall pass and I am feeling better everyday!

So, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY! Hopefully yours is full of chocolate and love! I made some chocolate caramel turtles yesterday with pecans in some and almonds in others. Then I had more chocolate, so I covered some mini-marshmallows and added a few walnut pieces to that. The girls really liked that. I am trying to temper the chocolate so that it sets up properly. The Food Network (one of the only channels we get that is any good) has been having chocolate week and they have had some really good information on there lately. So, I figured I would give it a try. I may need to buy a chocolate tempering machine, though. Please feel free to tell this to the hubby, in case he is looking for a cool present, oh, in say, mid-September! Or earlier. Maybe in April. Or now. You know, if it comes up! Because chocolate is pretty temperamental, you know. Anyway, everything tastes good, so that is half the battle!

I am going to call a friend. Got to get back into the normal swing of things. The girls are doing better. They are just getting over their colds, too.

Lots of love and hugs and kisses to all of you out there! I will be back at this again regularly! Have a great day!!!

Still Yucky

This is the cold from hell. I haven't slept for the last two nights. I am wheezing so much it wakes me up. Then I start coughing and hacking and I wake up The Hubby, too. Yesterday Mary dropped off three lemons so I could make her cold remedy. Lemon juice in a shotglass. Squeeze a clove of garlic in it and drink it down. Well, I didn't think about it last night after making dinner. But this morning after I got up I took this:

2 Sudafed caplets
1 AirBorne lozenge in a cup of water
1 shot glass of lemon juice with 1 clove of garlic

Anybody else have any suggestions? I certainly won't have any vampires after me, that's for sure! This thing is harder to kick than I thought, though. So far, the score is cold 2, Amy 0.

Oh yeah, and I haven't had any sugar or anything bad, either.

Feeling a little better...

I don't feel like I am going to die now. That's good. Apparently I can't treat my body like I am nineteen anymore. Too bad. But I do feel a little better. Maybe it's the rest, or the 12000 mg of vitamin C I have taken today, or the astragalus, or the ibuprofen. Or a combination of all of them. Whatever it is, it's working. Thank goodness, because the hubby doesn't know what to do with me. He has never seen me sick before and isn't coping very well. Although he did help get dinner on the table (Campbell's chicken noodle soup) and served me my hot tea. And helped the girls get ready for bed. All this after working all day. What a good hubby! I sure hope I am back to normal pretty soon. I don't like feeling useless.

I sent off a package on Thursday to my Secret Fairy friend. I signed up for a parcel exchange a couple of weeks ago at the Society of Secret Fairies blog page here and sent out my handmade card and chocolate parcel. Along with a couple of other things I thought she would like. I don't actually know if I will be receiving a package from the same person I am sending to or if it is someone else. Kind of fun, though. I will be posting a picture of the package I receive when I get it. I can't wait! It is fun to buy a little present for someone and anticipate getting something in the mail. Some of the SOSF fairies are in other countries, mine is in the US. Other than that, I don't think I can say much yet. You all will just have to wait.

Have a wonderful day!

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???

Well, Friday, I was cleaning the house until 4am on Saturday morning getting ready for the baby shower on Saturday. I slept from 4-8am, then got up and got back to cleaning. My friend Lisa, who did the shower with me, came over at 12:00 and we started in on the food. My house was almost clean, and her husband actually picked up the last few things that were on the table. So nice! We made a fruit platter, veggies and dip, chips and dip, ham and swiss on croissants, heavenly pink salad, mandarin pasta salad. I think that's it. And another girl named Amy, a friend of Mary, brought over some spinach and artichoke dip and french bread and crab stuffed mushrooms. YUM!!! And then she proceeded to stay in the kitchen and put the pasta salad and heavenly pink salad together. What a nice person! I am so glad I have such nice people around me. I wouldn't and couldn't have done the shower without Lisa. I called her up four times for stuff I didn't get a chance to get and she was so kind and never said no, I can't do it. She is such a gracious friend! She even drove over to the party store on Saturday morning and got some stuff to decorate. I totally forgot about that until about 2am on Saturday. Once all the junk was gone from the family room and living room, I looked around and said, hey, I forgot about the decorations! So she made a really cute banner and bought the streamers and she and her husband decorated the living room and it turned out great! What would I have done without her? And Amy was a big help in the kitchen, too. We are going to get together and hang out in the near future. Such fun!

The baby shower was a huge success. There were about fifteen people here. We played stork bingo, the chocolate diapers game, guess how big around the pregnant woman is, guess how many smarties in the baby bottle and I think there was something else, but now I can't remember. And we had some great prizes! Mary brought a $20 gift cert. to Applebee's, Lisa brought two different body lotion/spa treatment type gift sets. I got a stained glass candle holder, little boxes with See's chocolates in them, and a box of pretty, embossed note cards. Of course Lisa and Mary's prizes were the ones that got stolen when we did the game where you can steal a prize or take a new one! There was a lot of stealing going on! Amy even stole the Applebee's card from a little girl! However, when the little girl ended up with a box of chocolate, she was quite happy! A good time was had by all!

Then on Sunday I had a friend over who I had not had a chance to spend as much time with as I would have liked. We had a blast! She has quite the interesting past and found out about a portion of it. What an amazing woman! Talk about handling adversity! I wish I could tell you all her story, but some things are better left unsaid! I can say, though, if you ever met this woman, you would all love her as much as I do! She is truly amazing and has been through so much!

Well, by the time Sunday night came, I was so exhausted, I ended up getting Rebekah's cold. I really hope my friend doesn't get it! I could hardly sleep, I had the chills. And I stayed in bed for like twelve hours! Then on Monday at 11:30, we had a reservation for tea at Molly Kate's Tea Room. It was so nice! The first time I have taken the girls for tea. They both behaved very well. They had dinosaur shaped grilled cheese and chocolate chip and cherry scones and clotted cream, red grapes and strawberries. And raspberry lemonade in footed goblets! And Jess had her pinky in the air the entire time! Then they had a tiny chocolate cupcake with swirled pink icing and little candy hearts on top, sitting on top of a paper doily on a china plate. So cute! My lunch was a delicious broccoli cheese soup, chicken salad (with raisins, walnuts, celery) on a croissant, mini cucumber sandwiches with dilled cream cheese on wheat, a chocolate chip and cherry scone with clotted cream and for dessert, chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry syrup and cream on top! Yum! We all had tea and the girls got to put "Sugahhh" in theirs. That was supposed to sound fancy. All the time with the pinky in the air, of course. I got a couple of pictures of them there. A great time was had by all. Hey, Joann, they can seat up to twenty for a ladies tea! We could get the whole place to ourselves!

Hope you are all well. If you don't hear from me, it is because I am a little under the weather still and I am trying to recover so we can go visit my aunt this weekend! Have a great day!

My Mom

Well, this is depressing. I sat down a couple of days ago, to write all about my mom. And I realized I don't know enough to write down anything. I know she was born in Florida, that my Grandma was married to someone I never met before, but I don't know much else. And the only one who knows any of it is my aunt, my mom's sister. I am going to have to talk to her to find out more. But when I realized I don't know much, it made me sad. Because I should know about my own mother, shouldn't I? By the time I was at the point in my life that I wanted to know anything, she was so sick that talking was a struggle for her. It just seemed like everything was so difficult. Her mind was getting very fuzzy. About current things. She would ask the same question five or six times and forget the answer. And if she got something stuck in her head, she wouldn't stop thinking about it. For weeks. She had a something on her ear. I don't remember exactly what it was. But she was worried about it forever! She was so worried about this that she finally went to the doctor and I don't remember what they did about it, but then it wasn't an issue anymore. She thought it was cancer or something. And she didn't want to get cancer! But all the while, when she wasn't worried about dying of cancer, she was praying that the Lord would take her home, because she didn't want to live anymore. She was miserable, not able to do anything, couldn't lift a finger by herself, literally. But she was sure she didn't want to die of cancer! Some things just didn't make sense for the longest time. But talking about her history was not really possible at this point. And I should have made more of an effort to do so, but I didn't. And now I don't know much. That makes me sad. But now I will have to piece this all together. Because there aren't many people left.

And on a lighter note. My mom's mother was Grandma Aurlette. Her husband (the man I always knew as my grandpa) was named Arthur. So, Art and Aurlette. My dad's parents were Oma and Opa. It never occurred to me that these were not their real names. Art and Aurlette were so close, I didn't think Oma and Opa (the German name for Grandma and Grandpa) was too much of a stretch. Didn't know until I was like a teenager that their names were Anna and Joseph!

So, after this baby shower is done, I will have to start doing research on my mom.

Today I am Thankful For...

Our friends. New and old. For the happy times we share with them and the wonderful memories.

Our Friends Are Leaving!

My friend Lana is leaving. Boo-hoo! I am sad. Jessica is very sad. Her friend Melanie and her brother Austin are leaving, too. We went to Chuck E Cheese with them yesterday so the kids could play. They are moving to Nevada on Monday. Sold their house and bought one in a small town in Northern Nevada. About 11 hours drive from here! They had looked in Idaho (yes, she knows exactly where Sandpoint is) and some other places and they ended up in Nevada. Got some land and they are going to have chickens again. I used to get eggs from her before they sold their house in Palmdale. Rebekah wants to move to Duh-vad-a. And Jess does, too, when she turns eighteen.

I met Lana a few years ago when the kids were in gymnastics together. Neither of our kids go to the gymnastics center anymore, but we remained friends. And she has been my best Pampered Chef customer! She has had like four kitchen shows in three years! The last one on Friday last week.

I remember when my best friend moved away when I was four years old. She moved to Cincinnati. When we got old enough to write letters back and forth, we did. Covered them with stickers. I think I had to pay extra postage because of all the stickers on the pages! Now she is a television producer! And I visited her in New York when she worked at NBC before I got married. We stayed in contact through the years. Still do. I hope that Jessica and her friend Melanie stay friends.

Rebekah is sad that Austin is leaving. He gave her some cotton candy at Chuck E Cheese yesterday. You would have thought he gave her the best thing in the world. She gave him this look - smile, with lips pressed together, head tilted to one side, shoulder lifted up to rest her cheek on, eyes half closed. Trying to look sultry. Only succeeded in looking funny and cute. That's Rebekah! Then when we laughed at her, she kept doing it. Then she winked at him and I lost it! It was pretty cute.

I know Jessica will have more friends. She makes friends everywhere she goes. But Melanie has been her best friend and her first real friend. That she got together with and played with. That is special. They have had their differences, but for the most part they have gotten along great. And Jess has always told me if they disagree. Melanie is the one she wanted to call when she lost her first tooth! Thank goodness we have Vonage and calls to anywhere in the US are free. So they can still talk on the phone and send each other letters.

So we are losing some good friends, but maybe we can get up to northern Nevada and visit them sometime. Hopefully! Well, we are not really losing them, but we won't be able to get together like we have. What a bummer! But I wish them well in their new adventure.

Now Jessica wants to move because she thinks it is exciting to move.

The Doug Jones Experience

So there's this guy who goes to our church. He's an actor named Doug Jones. And he is a great guy and a wonderful example of Christ. And he has a beautiful voice. And he has done some very interesting movies. So I am looking up his site, the Doug Jones Experience, and I click on the link for his store. Well, it just seems really funny, to ME, that I could buy t-shirts, hats, trivets and teddy bears with Doug's picture on them. With "The Doug Jones Experience" emblazoned across the front. Now granted, this is not HIS site. He does not maintain it, it is maintained by a fan of his, a very nice one at that. Still, it made me laugh out loud. And I know he would be laughing about himself, which makes it even funnier. I may have to buy one of the children's shirts for the girls.

Today I am Thankful For...

My mother-in-law. Who watched the kids for me yesterday so I could go to the doctor. So I didn't have to explain to the kids at this age what the dr. was doing. AND she put the kids to work and straightened up my family room and kitchen! I'm going to have her over more often! What could I do nice for my m-i-l that wouldn't cost a lot? Any ideas?

Recycled Dollars - Part Two

She asked about it. Yesterday. Oh boy. Then she started looking for it. Frantically. Because she wanted to show it to her friend. I told her she needed to get ready to go to the library for story time and I was able to delay her for a while. So, we got home from the library and I had to go to the USPS website, get the phone number for the post office in Santa Clarita to find out if their stamp vending machine still gave change in dollar coins. Yes! So, on my way back from the dr's office yesterday, I stopped there and deposited a $20 bill into the machine. I had to buy a whole book of stamps! Oh well, it is for a good cause. I got twelve golden dollars and two dimes back! Now I have enough for later, too! I got back home and deposited eleven golden dollars into the monster safe and carefully placed the other on the floor of her playroom, right underneath where the tooth box had been on the shelf. After a little while, I casually asked her if she had a chance to look for the missing dollar. She said no and we went to look for it. I showed her where I had found the box and told her to look on the floor around there. There was plenty of debris on the playroom floor, so she had to do a little digging. She found it! "There's something here and it is shiny! And it is round!! It's my golden dollar!!!" Me: "Oh, good, you found it! Now put it someplace safe, okay? So you don't lose it again." Well, we put it in the monster as well. In a separate location from the other eleven. Phew. Done. I was so worried all day, since I had used the same one. What if the post office no longer had them? What if they only had susan b anthony dollars in the machine? I have received those as change before as well. So I was very relieved when I got golden dollars out of the machine!

In answer to your questions, Rosemary, golden dollars are the Sacagawea $1 coins that came out a few years ago that are no longer being minted. They were originally called Sacagawea dollars, but when people started to call them "Sucky's" because Americans don't want to carry coins around, they changed the name to Golden Dollars. They are a gold color and tarnish very quickly, so then they look almost copper-colored. They are the same size as the Susan B Anthony's. Apparently, the US Mint could save over $500 million per year if we would switch to dollar coins instead of paper dollars, but we the public are so whiny about it that they keep the paper and get rid of the coins. Since when do they listen to us about anything? JUST MAKE THE CHANGE. People will adapt! The campaign should be about saving the money, not making the money! But I digress.

Jess has her golden dollars from the tooth fairy. My guilt is gone. Today will be a good day. Now if I can just keep Rebekah from hitting her sister...

Recycled Dollars

I am a bad mom. I didn't realize that her tooth was as loose as it was. She was able last night to push it straight out forward, at a 90 degree angle from where it should have been. We put the Baby Orajel on and waited. It takes about ten minutes for it to take effect. So then I tried. She cried. I tried again and it came out. Then she bled. But she was happy! She really wanted the tooth fairy to come last night. Then she wanted to go to bed so Roy, the Tooth Fairy, would come. Then she was asking all kinds of questions. How does he get in the house? What does he do? Too many questions. I had to admit that I didn't really know that much about him. Well, then there was the problem of the golden dollar. She was anticipating a golden dollar. She wanted another one! But, being the bad mom, I did not plan ahead. Alas, there was no golden dollar to be found. EXCEPT...the one that was still left in the little tooth box from the first tooth! I went looking for the little tooth box and found it, with the gold dollar inside. I put the gold dollar in my pocket and brought the little box to her, where we together put the tooth in it. Then we put it under her pillow. Then this morning, she came to me and said, "He was HERE!" and produced the golden dollar! Ouch. Another twinge of guilt. She didn't ask about her other golden dollar. She hasn't realized yet that it is missing. However, she will. Just a matter of time. So, I need to find another golden dollar. And a third for the next tooth that is already loose. Nothing like planning ahead.

Today I am Thankful For...

The Tooth Fairy. Who paid another visit last night and made my daughter very happy. She's not going to have a tooth left in her head at this rate!

crazy week!

This IS going to be a crazy week. I have so much going on and the baby shower on Saturday! So far, there are going to be eight of us here for the shower. Maybe nine or ten. Not too bad. And I have only had two calls. Mary has had three people call her and one of them called me. Good thing it wasn't a surprise! Yes, I know the shower is a week away. And they haven't had a lot of time to think about it yet. But I will need to buy food and plan the menu. Some of you understand how frustrating it is when people don't RSVP. They don't seem to know that it means RESPOND PLEASE. Not "Call if you can make it". I have been guilty of this myself. I forget to call. I always feel bad when the shoe is on the other foot. So to speak. I mean, if I do it and I realize I do it, then what of all the people who don't give it a second thought? Nobody RSVP's anymore. My sister once gave a baby shower and one guest showed up. And I gave a baby shower last year that nobody called to say they were coming. We had NO RSVP's. So, I had to call everyone. We ended up with about 13 people. Who hadn't called. Who we would not have known were coming if they hadn't been called. Oh the shame of it! We all, myself included, have such bad manners now! I do vow to from now on figure out what is going on in a timely manner and RESPOND when I get invited to something.

Okay, I feel better. Let's move on, shall we? I gotta get my house cleaned!

Poor Scooter!

So, my friend was over yesterday and during the course of the conversation, she tells me that the last time we were down to visit her (about two weeks ago), she accompanied Rebekah to the toilet. And Rebekah was telling her about Scooter. Scooter was the best cat I ever had. He was the brother to my dad's cat, Grey Kitty. Dad also has Orange Kitty. Scooter was originally called Black Kitty. My nephew was three when he named them. (As a little aside, when I took them all to the vet for their first shots, the vet asked which one was which. Duh.)

Well, Scooter loved living in the San Fernando Valley, and he spent his days chasing birds and insects, rolling around in the dirt and sunning himself in the sun. He would come in sometimes, but mostly enjoyed being outside. He had spent the first two years of his life as an outdoor cat. He was given to Dad's neighbor, a guy that mainly cared about himself, because he had mice in the mobile home. When John left, he abandoned the cat. When I moved to an apt. that I could take him in at, I went up the mountain and took the cat home. He loved it. Anyway, when we moved to the desert, he stayed inside most of the time. Didn't like it. No trees outside, since we moved into a new house. He liked chasing mice, but we also had coyotes, which is most likely what happened to him, since he just didn't come home one night. Rebekah doesn't really remember him. She was very small when he disappeared. Jessica remembers him and loved him. He would curl up on the bed while she was asleep and take a nap with her. He loved her, too.

Well, occasionally Scooter will come up in conversation. Jess says she is going to cry. Rebekah says the coyotes got him. She elaborated on this in her conversation with my friend.

"Scooter DIED! The wolves got him!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, they tore his feet off and ate them up!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, then they tore his tail off and ate it up! Then they tore his butt cheeks off and ate them up! Then they tore his ears off and ate them up! Then they tore his tummy off and ate it up! Then they tore his nose off and ate it up! Then they tore his BUTT CHEEKS off and ATE THEM UP! "
"Do you just like saying butt cheeks?"
"Yes."

Somehow, I don't think this little girl is going to grow up and be a vegetarian. My friend said she related this story with such glee! It was all she could do to keep from bursting out laughing.

Hmm. The things girls talk about when they go in the bathroom together!

Today I am Thankful For...

Sling.

I was trying to figure out how to link to someone's blog and a very nice person, with a very interesting blog gave me some directions. So, I am going to try to link to his blog and see if this works.

Sling's Domain is here.

I think it worked. Thanks, Sling! Have a great day.

I feel smarter already. I was probably the only person on the face of the earth who didn't know how to do that.

For those of you who didn't know...

I have allowed for anonymous comments on the blog. So, for those of you who don't have a blogger account and don't want to get one, you can still comment. So, post a comment and let me know you were here!

Twelve Things

Okay, 5:30am and I have just finished washing all of the dishes and the dishwasher is going. It sure doesn’t take long before there are no more clean spoons, bowls or pans! The kids go through so many sippy cups, you would think they are disposable! And I actually get paper cups so they won’t use as many. Their main liquid is water and they are allowed to get it freely from the refrigerator. This does mean, however, that they leave water cups on the table. At least if they are open cups, I don’t have to retrieve them later from unknown places. Sippy cups are mainly used now for non-water items and for the car. But I digress.

I need to clean up this messy house today. Finally put away the Christmas tree. But in a few months I will have to pull it out again. It seems the Christmases come much closer together now. It used to take SOOOOO long for Christmas to get here and now, before I know it, there is another one around the corner.

Yesterday I actually got some stuff accomplished! I poked around in the shed for boxes for the Christmas stuff and ended up rearranging part of the shed. The Hubby actually noticed! And it was driving me crazy that there was only a small area to walk around my car in the garage, so I swept and rearranged part of the garage and now there is a decent amount of room to get around my car. My goal is to get The Hubby’s car in the garage, too. I do have a few things I would like to accomplish. Maybe I should make a list and see what gets done. You know, if you write it down and tell someone else, you have a better chance of getting it done, right? So, here goes:

1. Put away Christmas tree.
2. Clean out garage.
3. Clean up patio, sweep, get rid of tumbleweeds, wash table and chairs.
4. Organize closet (been working on this)
5. Clean up and organize computer room.
6. The computer room is such a mess, I need to put it on here twice.
7. Clean up and organize play room.
8. Clean up kitchen.
9. Vacuum.
10. Shampoo carpets.
11. Wash floors.
12. Wash windows.

Okay, twelve things. Some small, some big. Average one per month, though some will have to be done more than once and some will take longer than a month. So, once I get the tree put away, I will have to get started on a couple of the big ones right away, so I make sure they get done before the end of the year. I can’t be out in the garage in the summertime, so that will have to get done soon, if it is to get done at all. I am going to print this out so I can put it on the refrigerator. Wish me luck! This is the year I get organized!

I hope.

My Mom

So, after reading Rosemary's blog http://rosemarys-attic.blogspot.com, I have been thinking a lot about my mother. So, I am trying to put this all together in my head, but one day soon, I am going to start to tell my mother's story. Parts of it, anyway. And from my perspective. So, stay tuned!